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Metaphor: ReFantaziois no stranger to optional dungeons consisting of multi-story towers. The Tower of Insolence is its third, after all. Your climb toward the Ziocropos boss fight to fulfill the conditions of the “Proof of Power” side quest will be filled with challenging foes - and tantalizing treasures.
While the Tower of Insolence is hard to get lost in, our guide will touch bases with every powerful enemy, every reward, and our strategy against the cunning one-eyed creature who awaits you at the highest floor. Earn the Bramblethorn Baton to prove your valor and make another believer out of that soldier.
Quest Prep
To start “Proof of Power”,find the soldier with a quest markerin theOpera House section of Altabury Heights. His marker should appearany time after the climactic events of the opera house, including the clash with Louis.
The guard needs, well, proof of your power; during the conversation,the Tower of Insolence dungeon will be added to your map. Get there at your leisure.
Our team consisted ofthe protagonist as a Soul Hacker, Hulkenberg as a Paladin, Eupha as a Summoner, and Basilio as a Berserker. Feel free to mix-and-match as you please, but as you’ll see once we discuss the boss,this should work nicely.
If you have theGiant Slayersword for the Warrior Archetype,Strohl(or another Warrior main, if you’ve made one) works nicely here.
Floors One Through Four
As has clearly become customary with this reused dungeon layout,the first floor is a quick climb to the second. Here on the second floor, you’ll get your first taste of the beasties roaming the Tower of Insolence.
You should have no great trouble slaying theSpekkio-type enemies floating aroundon this floor, but they’re as potentially irritating as ever, as they willteleport away if you’re not fast enough before reappearing right beside youwith their attack.
Mow them down with a quick lunge before they can, or, barring that,leap wayward of the counterattackand then come back around for the killing blow.
Don’t miss the Gold Beetle on the second floor.
The third floor features theinward spiral layoutfor this tower. You ought to be able tocut down the giants alongside the Spekkios, butbeware the giants' wide swings of their bone clubs. If you’re not powerful enough, this may prompt a squad battle with disadvantage.
The treasure here is theStaff of Creation, aMage Archetypeweapon with 340 ATK, 96 HIT, and the rad bonus ofpowering up all forms of magic. Don’t miss theWhite Judgment Maskblue item on your way up the stairs, too.
The first of tworooms with numerous marching giants, thefourth floorhas themmoving roughly in unison from one side to the other. The smart play here is towait for them all to just turn their backs on you, then slice fromleft to right or right to leftrapidly.
If youdoget in a fight, it’ll often be againstone of the giants as well as two of the Spekkio enemies. The darker-tinted giants arePsyocros; the light-green ones are strongerPsyocropos.
The Spekkios areweak to fire, so something likeInfernal Vortexwill do the trick. The giants are weak toWind. Refrain from Electric attacks,as the Psyocropos absorb it.
Frankly, it’s best to just dispatch these outside squad battles, but if your level’s around 50 or so and you want to see comically high damage, useWind Bladewith Strohl for 3,000+ damage.
Floors Five Through Seven
On thefifth floor, evade theGuptauron’sheavy cleaves, coming up behind them to take them down in the overworld. If you’re not quite powerful enough to do that,raise your party’s Defense statif they’re at risk of attacking (and certainly if you’re ambushed), as they pack a wallop.
The Guptaurons useBreath of Battleto raise their Attack and Defense stats to their full three-stage maximum. They’re weak toStrike, so powerful Strike-based synthesis attacks will put them down in due course.
The chest on the fifth floor has theValkyrie’s Gauntlets, which offer 99 DEF whileraising both Strength and Endurance by five.
Thesixth flooris a twist on the fourth. This time,Psyocropos line one side of an assembly, and Guptaurons line the other. (A lone Guptauron stands like some sort of commander at the back end.)
It’ll be harder to avoid squad battles here;get them to chase you toward the doorto take them down one by one.
Battling one of these enemies has a tendency tosend a second wave of themat you once the first wave is defeated, since there are so many monsters in such close proximity.
The final floor before the boss, theseventh floor, has a scattered helping of enemies in a not-at-all threatening layout. The only downside? There’s no treasure. Move on to theeighthfor the boss.
Ziocropos
Ziocropos isweak to Wind. As such, moves like the Summoner’sSummon Eagle Kingand its more powerful synthesis variantSummon Eagle Lion Kingwill tear through it.
These have the added, and much beloved, effect oflowering Ziocropos' Attack, making defensive measures less necessary against a boss who can deal considerable physical damage when it isn’t debuffed.
Use the Berserker’sWild Boreas a follow-up. This synthesis skillsubstantially reduces the enemy’s Attack- all the better - whiledealing extreme Pierce damage; as it happens, Ziocropos is alsoweak to Pierce.
At roughly half health,Ziocropos summons a second Ziocropos. This is only particularly dangerous ifyou leave one of them alive on its own for too long, at which point it willpower up and gain more turn icons.
If you have it,Seeker’s Galeshould supplement the aforementioned attacks. With this rotation, as well as healing when necessary, you should expect toeliminate both Ziocropos in four to five rounds.
If youdoend up with a furious lone survivor, you’ll need to heal that much more, but the same tactics will apply in the prolonged version of the battle.
